GO SEE "THE KING OF KONG"

I know, I know, this blog has become a tired commercial for movies and a litany of dog ailments, but bare with me, I've seen a few REALLY good movies recently and I want you to know about them.

Tonight, Greg and I went and saw "The King of Kong" at The Landmark Century, here in Chicago. For those who don't know anything about the movie, here's the trailer. Watch it and then catch back up to me...



Now then, on one level this is a documentary about two guys who are both really REALLY good at Donkey Kong. Which is sort of a ridiculous, useless skill to have.

And that's pretty funny.

They're members of an elite club of social misfits who are still obsessed with these classic arcade games, 20 years after they were popular. People like Mr. Awesome and the third best Donkey Kong player and the guy who's REALLY good at Centipede.

And that's absolutely absurd.

But on another level, the film documents one guy's struggle to beat a high score that was set on Donkey Kong, twenty years ago. By a guy who's still mooching off that accomplishment in every possible way. The guy who's trying to beat him is a guy who never really was "the best" at anything, all though, he's tried lots of things. It seemed to him that he could play a video game really, really well, couldn't he?

That's interesting.

But he can't. He beats the record score once and is disqualified for nefarious reasons (by the guy whose score he beat). And he beats it again, in legal, sanctioned, observed, public conditions. And even THAT is taken away from him by that other guy (in a very questionable manner). We watch as the first guy gets close twice and then that's taken away from him, each time.

And that's excruciating.

And finally, this same guy, who gave up already, agrees to get back into the competition and then makes a bid for his place as the World Champion in the Guinness Book of World Records. He does his best, constantly trying to get the former champ to come out and play against him, head to head. Only the champ refuses to play against him.

And that's suspicious.

Some other things happen. I won't ruin them for you. I don't want you to know if the underdog in this movie ever gets the high score or not.

But I DO want you to go and see it for yourself. Experience the visceral reality of of these events unfolding in front of your eyes. Cheer for the hero and Boo the bad guy and see what a hero does, when the odds are against him, nobody wants or expects him to win, and he keeps on climbing those girders, jumping those barrels and hammering those fireballs to get to the top...and defeat the monkey in the necktie.

This isn't a movie about Donkey Kong.
Or the boys who play it.
It's about integrity and the men who have it.
Or who absolutely don't.

GO SEE "THE KING OF KONG"

Oh, and the guy that I was referring to, your new hero, his name is Steve Wiebe and that's him in the picture below, chasing down that world record.

In his garage.

On his own Donkey Kong console.